1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool that facilitates installation of a line from a utility pole located adjacent a traveled roadway to a building located on the opposite side of the roadway and, more particularly, relates to enabling one-person installation of optical fiber telecommunication cable from a utility pole on one side of a traveled roadway to a building located across that roadway.
2. Description of Prior Art
The installation of telephone cable from high telephone poles to a similarly high connection point on homes, businesses and other facilities is a physical challenge. The installer-technician needs to make the appropriate connection while braving the elements atop a telephone pole, or while supported within an elevated installation bucket. Location of the building to which the other end of the wire shall be connected can add to the challenge. Moreover, telephone companies prefer to dispatch only one installer-technician per job, rather than two in the interests of cost-effectiveness, if at all possible.
In the past, where copper wire line may have been the standard communication wire, that copper cable could be cut to exact length to run from its connection point at the building to its connection point at the telephone pole, without slack. In that scenario, using only a single installer, the connection to the building may be made first and the connection to the telephone pole is made second, regardless of whether or not a road crossing is required. The reason for this particular sequence is because the telephone pole is almost always located immediately adjacent the roadway. This sequence takes into account good road traffic visibility from the telephone pole's location.
For example, if the connection to the building is made first, even if roadway traffic is not visible from the building because of blocking foliage or because of a large setback from the roadway, only one installer technician needs to be deployed to the copper wire installation. This is because of the location of the telephone pole next to the roadway. After connection to the building, the installer-technician can carry the loose end of the copper wire across the street to the location of the telephone pole, and stay on the ground with the wire on the roadway surface allowing cars to drive over it without causing damage to the wire. From the side of the roadway next to the telephone pole, the installer has a good view of traffic in both directions. The technician can climb the pole (or use an automated elevator-bucket) and when the traffic is clear can pull the wire up quickly to the standard eighteen foot height, and make the installation to the telephone pole without unused cable excess while traffic flows underneath the wire. In this instance, only one installer technician is needed per installation, regardless of whether the building to be connected is on the same side of the street or the opposite side of the street as the telephone pole, because of road visibility from the telephone pole location.
However, with optical fiber telephone cable, the situation is quite different because the reverse installation sequence must be used. Fiber cable comes with pre-attached, factory-installed, connectors on cable of standard lengths, such as 100 ft. or 150 ft. lengths. Fiber cable cannot easily be cut and readily be spliced to exact lengths in the field, as copper cable can. If, for example, the total span from utility pole to building connection point is 110 feet, the installer needs to use the 150 foot standard optical cable, causing a 40 foot unavoidable cable slack. The slack must be stored at the building, not on the telephone pole, according to current protocol. Therefore, the telephone pole connection must be made first, which makes the installation at the building almost impossible unless there is a second person present standing at the roadway to signal the installer at the building when roadway traffic is clear. When the clear signal is given by the second person, the installer can pull up the cable to appropriate height on the building and make the installation and form the slack cable into a loop for storage at the building location.
Approximately fifty percent of the homes in a neighborhood are located on the side of the street opposite from the location of the telephone pole. The requirement of two people per fiber optic cable installation versus one person for copper installation is a cost problem, even for fifty percent of the installations. What is needed is a mechanical assistant to enable fiber optic cable installations by only one human installer, regardless of which side of the street the telephone pole is located relative to the house or building being connected. The present invention offers such a welcome solution to this problem of the prior art.